TomTom–owning multiple devices can be a pain

The weirdest requirement of owning a TomTom GPS device: If you have multiple devices that you use at the same time (eg: one for your car and one for your wife’s), then you can only have one device registered to an email account at a time.

http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10079/~/linking-devices-to-your-mytomtom-account

How PAINFUL!

Even worse, I had a TomTom device a long time back. I bought a new one in January of this year and it was working with my original computer without a problem. But since I got my new laptop, TomTom Home 2 continuously recognizes my XXL 550 device as a TomTom One device. The biggest problem with that: I had registered a LifeTime map update service for my XXL 550 and it no longer gets picked up by my TomTom Home2. So I am unable to get the latest maps.

Now, I have to spend time calling the customer service department (which is not open on a sunday) and get a solution for this. I just hope they have a solution, cause I paid good money for the LifeTime map service for my XXL.

You would think that the TomTom account would allow you to register multiple devices and that you could manage your subscriptions through their web-portal, but No! none of that is possible. You would think that the TomTom Home 2 software would automatically determine the device attached to the computer, use its serial number to determine what kind of TomTom device it is and also show you the different services associated with the device – again, not thought of! Without both of these basic features, my recent experience with the device has been very frustrating.

TomTom web-portal shows my active device as XXL	TomTom Home 2 shows the currently connected device as TomTom One and the “Change Device” option never enables itself – EVER!

Hopefully, the customer service call ends up being less frustrating.

Nissan in-dash navigation system–no exit numbers?

Until today, all the GPS systems that I have ever had, would display the exit number at which you were supposed to exit. But that does not seem to be the case with the GPS system installed in the Nissan Rogue (2011)! Am I missing a settings option, or does the Nissan Navi system not know about exit numbers?

 

Nissan 2011 Rogue Navigation System manual: http://www.nissanusa.com/content/dam/nissan/pdf/techpubs/2011/2011-Nissan-LC-Navi.pdf

Google Maps adds My Location to browser based maps

My Location was available on my iPhone’s Google Maps app from the very beginning. My Location uses GPS (and Cell phone tower triangulation when GPS is not available) to determine your location on the cell phone.

This week Google Maps added this feature to browser based map searches. I tried it out and was surprised at the accuracy. (It got the exact building).

The left red rectangle shows you the button used to enable “My Location”. The red box in the middle shows the location that Google pointed out was my location (Which is on the exact building that I work from).

The above was tested in Google Chrome and in IE (after installing Google Gears).

Finally – a GPS navigation app for the iPhone

XRoads has released a $19 app for the iPhone that can be used to replace your navigation GPS. It looks awesome and Cars.com has a review, that basically gives it good points, except for the fact that its costly ($40 for the whole of the U.S – the map is sold in 2 pieces eastern and western U.S.). Also, it needs almost 1gb of space for each app (which in one way is good – the map data is on the phone and so you wont need a wireless connection all the time).

I can’t wait to get this app onto my iPhone. But I will probably wait for the next release, when all the bugs are ironed out. (I hope that the app can be used in the horizontal orientation in a future version – I have only seen pictures of the app with the iPhone in the vertical orientation).

Check out these YouTube video demos: http://www.youtube.com/user/navi0808

And here are the scores that Cars.com gave the G-Maps app:

Ease of Use: 12 of 15 points
Routing: 13 of 15 pts
Map Quality: 5 of 10 pts
POI Content and Accuracy: 9 of 10 pts
GPS Accuracy: 8 of 10 pts
Multimedia Features: 4 of 5 pts
Mounting Kit: 4 of 5 pts
Voices: 0 out of 5 pts
Design: 5 of 5 pts
Value: 20 of 20 pts
Total: 80 out of 100 pts

Nav N Go’s iGo – Light years ahead of competition

  I first started using Nav N Go’s iGo software when it came packaged with the Mio c310s. The software runs on Windows mobile OS. The graphics were clean and clear. The interface simple and yet highly customizable. There were many websites dedicated to hacking the iGo software. The list of features that I liked are endless (smart zoom, quick overview of route, easy customization of route parameters, etc.) I loved the software very much.

Unfortunately, this year, not many of the low-end devices came packaged with the iGo 8. This new version is vastly improved (even better graphics, more options, 3D land-marks, etc) and I wish I could get my hands on a device that was cheap (under $200 or at least one to review). With none available and my c310 aging out, this year I begrudgingly, settled on a Garmin Nuvi 260.

But if you have the $ then check out this list of devices that run the iGo 8. The iGo8 will definitely not disappoint you.

Current list of devices supported by Nav N Go iGO 8:

Airis T482
Airis T620
ASUS MyPal A686
ASUS MyPal A696
ASUS P320
ASUS P535
Dell Axim X51v
Eten Glofiish M700
Eten Glofiish M750
Eten Glofiish M810
Eten Glofiish X500
Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX 720
Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX N500
Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX N520
Gigabyte g-Smart i
HP iPAQ h2210
HP iPAQ h4150
HP iPAQ rw6815 Personal Messenger
HP iPAQ rx5940 Travel Companion
HTC Athena 100 (X7500)
HTC Pharos (P3470)
HTC Touch Cruise (P3650, Polaris)
HTC Touch Dual (20 key) 5520
HTC TyTn (P4500, Hermes 200)
HTC TyTN II (Kaiser)
MiTA  Mio 168
MiTAC Mio 169
MiTAC Mio 180
MiTAC Mio A501
MiTAC Mio A701
MiTAC Mio A702
MiTAC Mio P350
MiTAC Mio P360
MiTAC Mio P560
MyGuide 7500XL
Palm Treo 750
Samsung SGH-i780
Toshiba Portege G810
Yakumo deltaX 5 BT

And a much more detailed list after the jump (link).

My wife has the HTC tilt mobile phone and I am going to check out to see if I can get the iGo8 to run on it and review this latest version from Nav N Go.

GPS – Mio and Garmin 2008

I loved my Mio c310 portable navigation device (PND or is it personal navigation device, never mind!). I loved the fact that it ran Windows CE and the mapping software was iGo 2006. The combination of using Windows CE and iGo, provided for a device that had crisp and visually pleasing graphics and an interface that was highly customizable. The c310 had its quirks but at $150 in 2006, it was a steal of a deal and I never got lost. The iGo mapping software is the standard that I hold other PNDs to know.

The biggest problem with the Mio c310 that I had was that the company did not put out map updates often enough and their customer service kinda sucked (just check the number of people who commented on my posts on upgrading the map software and how they could not get any help from Mio and used my post to unbrick their 310s).

So this year I started looking at the Mio’s Moov series of GPS. And boy was I disappointed to learn that they had replaced the iGO mapping platform with the software that used to run on the NavMan devices (I believe Mio acquired NavMan, which is why that is the software that is now packaged on these devices). Now there are a ton of people that think this was a good decision on Mio’s part as the NavMan is simpler to use with far fewer functions and is less customizable (read crippled!). This year Mio had the Moov 500 on sale at RadioShack for $150. With a wide screen layout and text-to-speech (TTS) it is the cheapest full featured GPS on the market. And I would have bought it, if only it had the iGo software running on it. From my very limited testing with the devices screwed down to the desk, I just did not feel like the NavMan software brought anything new to the party. I would have liked to test the device for a week and return it in a week if I didn’t like it, but given the state of the economy, I did not want to buy something that I might have to return and cause a company to take on a loss.

So this year, after tons of research, I settled on the Garmin Nuvi 260. This device does not have a wide-screen, but it does have text to speech (which means spoken street names - “Turn right in 100 feet on to Lincoln street”, instead of “turn right in 100 feet”). In addition, Garmin has a good map update policy and you can generally buy new maps every year for around $70. Garmin Nuvi’s also support a browser plugin, that allows you to send locations directly from Google Maps to your device when it is connected to your computer.

My only problems with the Nuvi: The device runs Linux and the graphics are just not crisp. (I felt that was also the same problem that the TomTom’s had). In addition, as someone who loves to tinker with his devices, there are just about zero hacks for the Nuvi(s) (same is true for the TomTom). I just cannot customize the map screen to show me the details that I am interested in and I am stuck with what Garmin decided that I must see while I drive. (On the Mio, I could have current elevation, time to destination, distance to next turn, just about anything that could be computed could be put on the screen).

The pluses for the Nuvi are: Solid map update technology, so you wont need a PhD in computer science to update the device’s firmware or maps. Simple interface – you will never ever need to break out the manual. Has TTS on a low end model. 5 hours of battery – so you can take it out of the car and on your walks around the city.

 

list of my posts on the Mio - http://blog.aggregatedintelligence.com/search/label/Mio

list of my posts on GPS devices - http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&source=uds&q=GPS%20blogurl%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.aggregatedintelligence.com%2F

Google Maps Car Busted - Flickr

 

Picture of a Google StreetView car pulled over by a cop in San Francisco. (from Flickr).

What is interesting is that it gives us a close up look at laser sensors that Google has added to its StreetView sensor platform.

I had written about the new laser sensors that were first seen on Google cars trolling the streets of Europe (Google collecting 3D data). This platform looks identical to the one spotted in Milan.

With the new angles that these images provide - it looks like there are 4 SICK laser sensors mounted on this platform. Two that are oriented to scan vertically and pointed to look on either side of the car and the other two facing front and back of the car are oriented to scan horizontally.

This is different from the setup that Zakhor and Frueh used, where they had two SICK lasers facing the same direction, with one scanning horizontally and the other scanning vertically.

 

(from http://www-video.eecs.berkeley.edu/papers/frueh/siggraph2003.pdf, the image on the right shows the 2 scanners oriented so that one is capturing vertically - red and other horizontally - peach)

Here is another vehicle developed by a Japanese university that uses 3 scanners. (link)

Here is a great article on the SICK laser with pictures of what the inards of this gadget look like (Link).

And here is what it does

This is a time-of-flight type LIDAR, which means that it literally uses the speed of light to measure distance. A laser sends out a pulse of light, and a timer is started. The timer stops when the pulse's reflection is detected. Distance is simply T/2C, where T is the timer delay and C is the speed of light. If you rotate the entire optical assembly (or just a mirror in this case), you get very detailed polar range data.

Finally, here is some more information on the SICK laser (link)

And a project that uses the SICK laser for range detection using Microsoft's Robotics Studio (link)

Dash Express for $299.99

In a previous post - Dash Express - Finally a connected, crowd-sourced GPS, I had written about the DASH GPS device. The Dash is a two-way Internet connected GPS system like none other. And Amazon has it now for $299.99 and I am extremely tempted to buy it. The service still costs about $11.00 per month to use the 2 way Internet connectivity on the road - which uses cellular phone networks for communication.

Check it out at Amazon.com: Dash Express.

Make your own Nikon GPS attachment

epicblog has instructions for creating your own GPS attachment for a Nikon D200 camera.

 

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems

TomTom launches online content-sharing platform through TomTom HOME (link)

TomTom released a major upgrade to its TomTom home software yesterday. This version of TT Home is supposed to make it so that "Users can seamlessly download, upload and share content with other members of the TomTom satnav community for free".

Now to go and see whether it works with my TT One 3rd Ed. (according to the website - it should).

Here are the interesting parts from the press release:

• Users simply connect their device to their computer, launch TomTom HOME and select the type of content that interests them. Within each area, the user will see a list of content supplied either by TomTom, a third party or individual TomTom customers. They simply click on the ‘add’ button to install the content onto their TomTom device. To upload and share content, users simply fill in a short description of the content and can then easily transfer the item from their device to TomTom HOME.
• Symbolizing the importance of user-generated content, users can rate content via a star system, as well as sorting the content by popularity in the TomTom community. Additionally, TomTom HOME will automatically distribute any updates to existing content. For example, if a user updates a POI set of favorite restaurants, their changes would automatically be sent out to TomTom HOME users who have previously downloaded that set.
• New management improvements to Map Share, TomTom’s patented map improvement technology. Now users can limit the corrections they download by region, enabling those with limited memory space on their device to use Map Share more selectively. Additionally, Map Share now features a status indicator which keeps users informed on how up-to-date their maps are.

The software can be downloaded from: http://www.tomtom.com/plus/service.php?ID=17&Lid=4

nuvifone: A cellphone by a GPS device maker

In a surprise move - Garmin announced that it was going to start selling a cell phone starting Q3 2008. This might turn out to be an extremely interesting device - as Garmin has been producing the Nuvi GPS system - one of my favorite - for a while. It obviously remains to be seen - how much of that experience developing great GPS devices will be transferred to the NuviPhone.

The biggest thing running for this phone is that Garmin has a pretty good mapping software and also has the data. It remains to be seen if they can add on functionality that will make it as interesting as the iPhone.

Finally - if the iPhone begins supporting GPS devices via a blue-tooth interface - I wonder what users would go for - Google Maps with location support via an external GPS device - or a cell phone with integrated GPS and in-built maps. Personally I would go for the later - as I would know that I will have access to my maps - driving through any location in any country.

More information at Gizmodo : nuvifone: Garmin Drops a Phone into the GPS and Garmin : http://www8.garmin.com/nuvifone/

Bug Labs: Electronic Lego blocks

 Bug Labs

Ever wanted a set of electronic components that you could plug together just like LEGO blocks to build a final device? One can do it with computers and plug n play peripherals, but why not with your camera or GPS system.

For example: If you had a digital camera and a little later you decide that you are sick and tired of finding the USB cable every time you need to download the images. Instead of going out and buying a new digital camera which is WiFi compatible, why not be able to plug-in a module that gives your camera that capability. In the same way - if you are going on a world tour and you would like to have your images auto geo-tagged as and when you take your pictures - it would be cool if you could attach a component that gives your camera GPS capability.

The list is endless - you could remove the digital camera module and attach a touch screen module and voila you would have a PDA. Or you could attach a GPRS module and instead of using WiFi hotspots you could be constantly connected via cellphone towers. (The company doesn't seem to have plans of a GPRS module just yet - but I am sure they will release one as soon as the product takes off).

According to the company:

BUG is an open source, web-enabled, modular software + hardware platform.

Bug on the Maker blog

The main module of the Bug is a Linux embedded computer. The first modules that are going to be available are a digital camera, GPS, motion sensor and a touch screen. Going forward - they are actually going to add a teleporter module (hopefully it will teleport you around the universe without leaving your clothes behind).

The company bills its product as an open source device. Not sure if this means that others will have the schematics to build and connect their own devices, or is it only as far as creating software that can talk to the company's devices. The device has a SDK called DragonFly which can be leveraged to write software to work with the BUG. The SDK is in JAVA and the company may possibly provide tools to allow for easy software creation using the Eclipse IDE. The SDK is available right now and one can create applications (not sure how much you can do without the actual device to play with)

A list of open source software that the company uses is available at:http://www.buglabs.net/oss_list

Being an open source project - what this means is that by the time the product hits market shelves, there should be a considerable list of plugins that one could download to their BUG device. This is important because usually when a device ships it comes with a bare minimum set of applications. But once users are given the ability to create apps for the device - it normally means that you will get apps that are actually useful to you. As an example, say you pickup the touch screen, which makes your BUG into a PDA. With the touch screen you may get a simple ToDo list app. Now you might need a GPS navigation device - so you add the GPS module. Some user out there might have looked at the 2 modules and say - hey why not make the ToDo list location aware?! He could write the software and then your ToDo list could automatically pop up items based on your location.

The fact that they have made their platform open to other developers is definitely a very cool thing.

As the store is not yet open - I am not sure what the cost of the device is going to be or its add on modules. One model that the company could use to supplement its income is to have a store front on its site where developers could sell their creations to other BUG users and the company could make a percentage of the sales (a la BugBay). In addition if they add a GPRS module - they could provide the cellular data service and charge a subscription fee for it (constant revenue stream - which company doesn't like that!)

I can't wait to take this product and its accompanying SDK for a spin.

BugLabs

In depth look at the Dash Express GPS

In a previous post I had written about the totally awesome new GPS device called "Dash Express". The device has me tickled silly with all its cool and innovative features. I have been reading more about the company and the technology that they are using.

So one of the things that I do know is that the Dash Express runs on LINUX. The company site lists numerous open source packages that they use on and for developing the device's software (http://www.dash.net/OpenSource/downloads.php?release=2.0.0 - you can even download the packages with all the changes that they may have made to them from this webpage.)

I have listed the packages here with more information about what each package does:

• ASLA
  Multimedia libraries and sound drivers
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/multimedia/libdriv.html#alsa
      alsa-lib
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/multimedia/alsa-lib.html
      alsa-utils
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/multimedia/alsa-utils.html
• Binutils
  A collection of binary tools that are used for linking and assembling among other things.
  http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/
• BusyBox
  The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
  BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU fileutils, shellutils, etc.
  http://www.busybox.net/about.html
• Crosstool
  Crosstool is a set of scripts to build and test several versions of gcc and glibc for most architectures supported by glibc. It will even download and patch the original tarballs for you.
  http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/current/doc/crosstool-howto.html
• Daemonize
  Daemonize runs a command as a Unix daemon. See the accompanying man page for full details
  http://www.clapper.org/software/daemonize/
• db - Oracle Berkeley DB
  Embeddable database engine that provides developers with fast, reliable, local persistence with zero administration. Oracle Berkeley DB is a library that links directly into your application. Your application makes simple function calls, rather than sending messages to a remote server, eliminating the performance penalty of client-server architectures. Oracle Berkeley DB eliminates the overhead of SQL query processing, enabling applications with predictable access patterns to run faster.
  DB package contains programs and utilities used by many other applications for database related functions.
  http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/index.html
• DBus
  D-BUS is a message bus system, a simple way for applications to talk to one another.
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/dbus.html
• GCC - GNU Compiler Collection
  The GCC package contains GNU compilers. This package is useful for compiling programs written in C, C++, Fortran, Java, Objective C and Ada.
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/general/gcc.html
  http://gcc.gnu.org/
• GDB - GNU Project Debugger
  GDB is a source-level debugger for C, C++, Ada, Java and many other languages.
  http://sourceware.org/gdb/
• glibc - GNU C Library
  Any Unix-like operating system needs a C library: the library which defines the ``system calls'' and other basic facilities such as open, malloc, printf, exit...
  http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/general/glib2.html
• GZip - GNU Zip
  gzip (GNU zip) is a compression utility.
  http://www.gzip.org/
• HotPlug
  Hotplug lets you plug in new devices and use them immediately. That means that users won't need to learn so much system administration; systems will at least partially autoconfigure themselves.
  http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net/
• iproute2
  Iproute2 is a collection of utilities for controlling TCP / IP networking and traffic control in Linux.
  http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2
• libiconv
  http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/
  Library that provides for conversion between different text encoding standards.
• LibUSB
  A library for use by user level applications to access USB devices
  http://libusb.sourceforge.net/
• Linux 2.6.21
  Linux Kernel
  http://www.kernel.org/
• module-init-tools
  The module-init-tools (m-i-t) package provides many of the utilities needed by Linux systems for managing loadable Linux Kernel Modules.
  http://www.kerneltools.org/KernelTools.org
• mtd-utils - Memory technology devices
  The aim of the system is to make it simple to provide a driver for new hardware, by providing a generic interface between the hardware drivers and the upper layers of the system.
• POPT
  The package contains the popt libraries which are used to parse command-line options.
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/general/popt.html
• PPP
  Implements the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) on Linux and Solaris systems. Contains the pppd daemon and the chat program. This is used for connecting to other machines; often for connecting to the Internet via a dial-up or PPPoE connection to an ISP.
  http://ppp.samba.org/
• procps
  Package that has a bunch of small useful utilities that give information about processes using the /proc filesystem
• SetMixer
  A commandline mixer
  http://packages.debian.org/testing/sound/setmixer
• sysfsutils : System Utilities Based on Sysfs
  These are a set of utilites built upon sysfs, a new virtual filesystem in Linux kernel versions 2.5+ that exposes a system's device tree.
  http://linux-diag.sourceforge.net/Sysfsutils.html
• Termcap
  Termcap is a library and data base that enables programs to use display terminals in a terminal-independent manner
  http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/termcap/termcap_1.html
• Tslib
  Tslib is an abstraction layer for touchscreen panel events, as well as a filter stack for the manipulation of those events.Generally used on embedded devices to provide a common user space interface to touchscreen functionality.
  http://tslib.berlios.de/
• USButils
  USButils package contains a utility used to display information about USB buses in the system and the devices connected to them.
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/general/usbutils.html
• WGet
  Package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols. It is a non-interactive commandline tool, so it may easily be called from scripts, cron jobs, terminals without X-Windows support, etc.
• Wireless_tools
  A set of tools allowing to manipulate the Wireless Extensions
  http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html
• WPut
  A command-line ftp-client that looks like wget but instead of downloading, uploads files or whole directories to remote ftp-servers
  http://wput.sourceforge.net/

Dash Express - Finally a connected, crowd-sourced GPS

 

I have had a GPS system for a little over a year. It is a MIP c310x and for $150 it does more than adequate a job of guiding me to my destinations. I have looked at the more expensive systems - like the ones from Garmin (Nuvi 360) and TomTom (Go 920) which retail for close to $600. I just found them an overkill. For the extra price you get spoken street names, maybe traffic information (you have to pay a monthly subscription) and maybe a wide screen display. But $450 just for those features - no thank you! I can do with out them.

From the first day I have had my GPS unit, I have wanted some features that I just did not find on any of the GPS units out there.

1. Ability to download route information from the computer.
   Setting up a route to just one destination is fine using the touch-screen of a PND (Personal Navigation Device). But if you have to travel cross country, or if you wish to have multiple destinations - then the touch screen interface can become a pain. I have always wanted a way to define my route on my computer, where I have access to the Internet and I can perform research on the stops, etc and then have that route uploaded to the PND. There doesn't seem to be even one such PND out there that can accomplish this simple task.
2. An Internet connected PND
   Many a times, I have found my self in a new neighborhood and I would want to find a certain establishment to visit. For example if I wanted to find a restaurant (maybe an Italian restaurant), current PNDs will show you a list of such locations based on the distance. But without a rating or review - how do you choose which one to go to. With WiFi becoming prevalent and ubiquitous, wouldn't it be nice if you could take your device to a hotspot and look up information about a point of interest (POI)? The PND could give you recommendations that are based not only on the distance but also on reviews. To take it a step further - the device could act like the iPhone - use a WiFi connection when available - otherwise connect via the cellular network to download that information.
3. Share information about maps, roads and POIs
   Granted TomTom's MapShare can do some of that, but with so much social networking going on - their solution is pretty crippled. An ideal solution wouldn't just allow you to share road closure information, but also POIs, new roads, events, etc. Just about any information that could leverage location should be shareable. (TomTom can download road-closures, but you cannot directly share new road information - it is uploaded to TomTom and probably provided to you as a map update - for a price of course).

Enter Dash Express.

Dash Express seems to be the first PND that seems to have all of the capability that I always dreamed of wanting in my PND. I always wanted to build such a system - now I guess I don't have to .

1. Computer to PND Connectivity:
   
   The feature is called "Send2Car". Currently Dash Express does not seem to have the capability of defining your route on a mapping application like Google Maps or Virtual Earth, but you can use Send2Car to send addresses from your computer to the device. Even cooler, you can have someone else send you an address while you are on the road - Woof! Woof!
   The Dash - supports GeoRSS and KML (Getting your web content in the car!). So I don't see why it wont be possible to export your route from Google Maps as KML or use another tool to export it as GeoRSS and load the content on the Dash. Even if not possible in the first release - I am sure that the capability will be added very soon to the Dash.
2. Traffic information:
   
   The traffic information that Dash provides you isn't the same information that you see in your other PNDs. The traffic information is not just from the traditional sources, Dash also uses information from other Dash users - called the Dash Driver Network. (More on this technology in a later post). And because Dash uses other Dash users to detect traffic changes - it can provide information about local streets in addition to high-ways. This technology is just not available via any of the other PNDs.
   
   
3. An Internet connected device:
   
   The Dash supports both connecting to the Internet via WiFi and GPRS (cell phone) networks. Which means that while you are at home or near a HotSpot you could take advantage of the higher speed and band-width of WiFi and while you are on the road you could exchange information using the cellphone networks.
   It is this Internet connectivity that allows the Dash to break out of the mold of older PNDs. Which include:
   * Crowd-sourced traffic information from traditional sources as well as the Dash Driver Network.
   * Yahoo local search - and possibly ability to search using other services. (This makes the amount of POIs available to the device unlimited).
   * Send2Car - which allows you to send information from other Internet connected devices (traditional computers, cell-phones, etc) to the Dash.
   * MyDash - a portal for owners of the Dash. I am not clear about what this site provides - but you can possibly customize your Dash with specialized search buttons and maybe other customizations such as skins in the future.
   * AutoUpdate - which allows your Dash to always have the latest software and maps running on it.
   Because the Dash needs to use GPRS, there is a subscription component to owning the Dash. This varies from $9.99 to $12.99 depending on the plan you sign up for. (Compare that to TomTom's Plus Traffic service, which costs € 39.95 for 1 year subscription + costs for use of your mobile phone. http://www.tomtom.com/page.php?Page=rds-tmc - and gives you information only about the traffic as opposed to Dash - which gives you access to all the above features - value, value, value if I may say so)
4. Open Content Platform:
   Though not touted as a feature on the product page itself - there is a lot of talk of the "open content platform" on the company's blog. This feature might be huge if it allows 3rd parties to either develop plug-ins that can be installed on the device and can then download location based data to the device or if the 3rd parties can publish data in a specific way, so that the Dash can take advantage of it (though one would be able to do that with the GeoRSS or KML formats).

And just like the expensive Garmins and TomToms, the Dash Express sports a wide screen. At a price of $599 (http://shop.dash.net/Dash-Express-Pre-order), I think there is almost no reason that one would still want to but one of the other PNDs that are available at the same price point.

What does all this mean: Since the early 1980s when the first PNDs debuted the devices have hardly changed (current position showed on built-in maps and routing). In my opinion the Dash Express is the biggest innovation seen in almost 20 years. Every one of its new features will definitely strike a chord with current and new PND customers. This, I am sure, in the near term will translate to many of the other PND manufactures dropping their prices so as to compete with the better feature set that Dash provides. In the long term many of these features (especially true Internet connectivity) will start appearing on the other PNDs. And as the currently unique features to the Dash start appearing on the other devices - the Dash will start becoming cheaper. I would also think that the subscription costs might get cheaper as more people purchase the device. Another price driver might be the fact that by dropping prices, more people will sign on to the Dash service. And as more people get tied into Dash's network - the more information the Dash will have for it's users, which will possibly keep Dash as one of the best services to stay with. (So the faster that Dash can get more people tied to its service, the harder its competitors will find to steal away those users).

So for all my gushing for the product - are there features I don't like: Yes.

• The Dash uses Linux: I wish it were a Windows device - because those are typically easier to hack. The device I have runs on Windows PocketPc and the GPS software is called iGO. The device is highly hackable and hence highly customizable. I can turn my Mio into PDA, I can customize the skin to show exactly what information I want on the map. (None of these are easy to do as there are no tools that allow easy access to the settings - never the less it is possible). On the other hand the TomTom that I have - has Linux running - and even though you can get an OpenSource TomTom app on to it, it doesn't seem to be as customizable as my Mio running iGO. Though this is not a huge issue - where there is software - hack-ability will follow.
• The form factor: The Dash is not flat and thin and so wont fit in your pocket. So in it's current avatar - you probably will find it a pain to take it out of your car and walk with it. (It would be nice if the wing section in the back would fold down for storage - v2.o maybe).
   
• The price: at almost $600 - is still pretty expensive. It makes the WAF (wife acceptance factor) that much lower.
• 3D View of map:  The one feature I cannot find anything about and which I think is extremely important in today's GPS navigation systems is a 3D view into the map. None of the screen shots, nor the specifications on the company's website talks about 3D maps. I think that 3D maps make it a lot more easier to follow a route and if it isn't there in this version - then I would most probably wait for a version on which it will be offered.

So will I be pre-ordering the device? Even though I would love to have one to test, my Xmas gifts for this year have already been bought and I typically wait for v2.0 of any device before I go out I buy them. So probably not yet.... but if the device has 3D maps and given that the cool factor is so high for me on this device - I just might.

Finally, here is a video of a presentation the company did at Web2.0 Summit:

And Gizmodo has a video where the device was taken for a spin in a car: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gps/video-dash-gps-%252B-zillow--real-estate-stalk-fest-319732.php

The videos shows you all the cool features I have written about: Send2Car, Search using Yahoo! and mashups using Zillow and CraigsList.

A very cool device indeed!

Virtual Cable™ Car Navigation - Why Didn't I Think of That?

Here is an invention that makes me go "Now, why didn't I think of that?". A heads up GPS navigation system for cars.

 

It is called the Virtual Cable. The driver sees the Virtual Cable - a line representing his path - projected on to the windshield. It looks like its a suspended cable - hence the name "Virtual Cable".

According to the inventor's website "The image is in true 3D and appears to be a natural part of the landscape. The driver uses only peripheral vision to follow the Virtual Cable™."

Virtual Cable™ Car Navigation - Safe, Simple and Intuitive

More about the technology: http://www.mvs.net/technology.html

The device is only a prototype right now and from the looks of the site - the inventor is trying to line up funding for taking this device to production.

Will be cool to see how the finished product looks and how much more information is displayed on the wind-shield.

PocketFinder!

PocketFinder is a small device that uses GPS to locate itself and provide updates to the registered user of that device. The device seems to use cell phone networks to send the updates and registered users can track it online.

The obvious use of such a product is to track children and pets. From the website and product packaging - that looks like the segment the product is currently being aimed at. Obviously one could place the device in a vehicle for vehicle tracking, which would make it useful as a business application of the device.

One thing that I am not sure of is as to what the device will do indoors or in GPS shadow regions. It would be cool if it could use the cell-phone networks to get an approximate location (just like the new Google Maps Mobile does - using the strength of signals coming from the cell phone towers). That would be an extremely important feature when it comes to parents who are buying the product to track their kids.

The idea of the PocketFinder itself is not new. If you look at my previous post Open Source GPS Tracking Solution, you will see that there exists an open source project that would enable just such GPS application. PocketFinder just like the GumStix project is not a completely new idea, but both projects show one thing that is important - Marketing. Both these products have a good name, good packaging, an excellent web-site and are slowly creating brand and product awareness.

No word on when the device will be available for purchase right now. (The retail locator currently doesn't return any results). One thing I am sure about, is that they will probably have a subscription model as they will have to pay for the access to the cell phone networks for the purpose of transmitting the location data.

Going forward into the future, I do wonder how much of a demand will there be for such a product, as most cell phones will be location aware via Assisted GPS and so the concept could be implemented as a software solution. It will definitely have a market for tracking very young children, the elderly, pets as well as vehicles.

Also for future features - these devices could transmit small snippets of sound, environment readings (heat, humidity, etc) - which would be useful for vehicle or shipment tracking. It would be cool if these features could be added as add on modules to a basic device. That way depending on the application one could pick and choose the features that they need.

The PocketFinder is being developed by a company called Location Based Technologies.

Open Source GPS Tracking Solution

Came across two open source projects that can provide a solution for GPS Tracking.

OpenDMTP (Device Monitoring and Tracking Protocol/Program) provides the framework that allows bi-directional data communications between servers and devices (clients) over any type of network (GPRS, Internet, etc.).

Where OpenDMTP provides the framework for communication between a server and a client device, the project OpenGTS (GPS Tracking Solution) provides the server side web-platform that can be used to display the information obtained via OpenDMTP (The device (client) uses OpenDMTP to send messages to the website implemented with OpenGTS - which then could display the information on any web-based mapping solution).

 

One of the features claimed by the authors of OpenDMTP is that it has been built to keep the amount of network traffic used low. This is extremely important when it comes to communicating over GPRS (cell phone) networks - where bandwidth is expensive and charged by the kiloByte.

OpenDMTP has reference implementations in both C and Java. (The C implementation runs on LINUX and can be run via CygWin in Windows).

OpenGTS has been implemented using Java and uses MySQL as the database. A demo project can be seen at http://track.opengts.org/track/Track (click on Demo to see it in action)

 

Source code: OpenDMTP and OpenGTS

Article on getting OpenDMTP running on a laptop: http://www.opendmtp.org/article/webserv/

Mio c310x Updated Maps compared - III

POIs BAD CHANGE To include the newer maps - which are larger than the previous data-sets, MIO reduced the number of POIs in the updated maps. (From approx 3million to 1.7 million). Here is a result of the reduction: I searched for Circuit City while centered on city capitol in Denver. The closest result that the new maps gave me was in Wyoming - almost a 100 miles away. The older maps show 2 within a 10 mile radius and 3 more within a 60 mile radius. Above: Results of searching for Circuit City in Denver on the new Maps Above: Results searching for Circuit City in Denver using the old maps

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Updated maps - new cities GOOD CHANGE Here is an address that would not come up in the old version - 2160 Gold St, Alviso, CA - apparently the address for Tivo. The city of Alviso, CA wasnt even there in the old one.

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THE JURY IS OUT CHANGE Here is a route that apparently is not the most optimal. 100 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City CA, to 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto CA. Due to the roads not being marked with the correct speed - the fastest route that is calculated is via city streets - El Camino Real. (Below - old map) In the new maps (below - new map), the route calculated is exactly the same when using the "fastest route" option. But if you instead use the "easiest route" option - you get part of the route being computed as the optimal route. (The optimal route is supposedly Highway 101 and then Oregon Expressway).

Above - route calculated using easy option